The Country Cop

Before 'Anonymous' tells us that this is all bullshit, the following is loosely based on a true story. The incidents involving the policeman, the drunk and his wife actually did happen, of course some changes have been made to make the story more credible.

The road into town passes a sign that reads 'Morton. Population: 250'. But the sign can no longer be believed because no-one has bothered to change it for twenty years. On one side of the main street is the railway station that once thrived with goods from the local farms and forests being loaded onto trains and shipped to markets miles away. The loading dock and siding are no longer used and miles have become kilometres.

On the other side of the road is the General Store that holds onto tradition by closing for an hour at lunch time. Next to the general Store is the hotel. It no longer is the thriving business that it once was at the time that this story is set. Further up the road is the hull of a building that used to house the cinema as they call them today. In its heyday it was known as the 'flicks', a throwback to a time when hand-cranked films flickered. The 'flicks' was famous for its cuddle seats, two seats without the barrier of an armrest in the middle, where young couples could kiss and cuddle, and which had an unfortunate habit of collapsing, depositing the courting couple unceremoniously onto the floor amid the cheers and cat-calls of the rest of the audience.

Next door but one to the cinema was the red-brick Police Station that was presided over by one policeman. This was for years Sergeant Frank Chilvers, known to all and sundry as 'Chilly'. It is he who is the central character of this story, and the events depicted are what led to his decision to leave this position. These events came to light during a 'Performance Review' and I should know because it was me that conducted it.

I arrived incognito a week ahead of the scheduled review meeting so that I could get a feel of the situation, to see how the locals got on with the Sergeant. The first thing that struck me was that no-one ever referred to him by his title or name, it was always 'chilly'. Now the official stance to this type of casual attitude was that it was not encouraged, after all the people were supposed to respect the police. My stance was a little different, and it depended very much on the tone used by the person speaking to or about him. In every case the tone was familiar without being derogatory so I let it slide.

The next thing I noticed was when he was giving driving tests they varied from student to student. Some were put through a very stringent test while others, and in one case instance, the test was almost non-existent. The case in point consisted of the student driving him to the Fish and Chip shop at the top of the hill and waiting while he bought his lunch and then driving him back to the police station.

One case in particular that I heard about was when a young lad arrived at the police station on his seventeenth birthday and announced to Sergeant Chilvers that he had come to sit his driving test. Sergeant Chilvers' response was; "How many years have you been driving now Phil?"

Phil was quite open with his answer; "Since I was twelve." With which Sergeant Chilvers issued him with his Drivers Licence. I was horrified when I heard about that one and made a note to raise the issue when I spoke to him.

I sat in the front bar of the Hotel on Saturday night watching the customers. They were the usual types you get in a country pub, the older guys sitting and chatting away, usually about the 'good old days' and the things that they did and some of the women that they 'knew'. Then there were the middle aged guys drinking to forget the woman waiting at home for them, and wondering when it would be safe for them to return.

The next group were the interesting ones, they were the younger men in their late twenties or early thirties who were still full of bullshit about the things that they'd gotten up to and the women that they'd had. They drank too much and talked too loud and in many ways were a disturbance to the rest of the clientele. The final group were the young guys who didn't have a date to the flicks and were too embarrassed to rock up solo. They sat at the bar and drank beer until they needed to empty their bladder to fit the next beer in. They weren't much of a problem and the Sergeant arrived just before closing time and suggested that they call it a night. They got up and left.

He then went over to one of the old guys. "Bill, I've just rung your Mary, she's coming in to pick you up. You'd better finish up, you don't want to keep her waiting." Mary I assumed to be the man's wife but as it turned out she must have been his grand-daughter. She thanked 'Chilly' and ushered the old man out. His mates soon followed and I noticed that despite having been drinking steadily all night they didn't seem worse for wear.

The middle aged men saw what was going on and decided to brave the home front. This left the bullshit artists. They were noisy and had been just noisy, no real problems until one of them started bragging. "Wednesday night I fucked Suzie Chambers in the front seat of my car while we were parked in her driveway with her old man asleep inside not twenty feet away. She fucking scared the shit out of me when she came, Christ was she loud, I thought she'd wake up the whole fucking neighbourhood."

"You are so full of it man!" One of his mates interjected into this narrative. "I live right next door to her and, if she was as loud as you say she was, she would've set my dogs off. They bark at the slightest noise, they've even been known to bark when a mouse farted."

"Are you calling me a fucking liar? If you don't believe me you only have to ask her. She told me it was the best fuck that she'd had for years."

"She tells everyone bloke that, and she's told plenty."

"Are you saying she's a slut?"

"She must be if she'll let you fuck her."

It looked like it was going to develop into something when Sergeant Chilvers strolled over and tapped the first guy lightly on the shoulder with his big four cell Winchester torch. The guy swung around with his fists at the ready, but when he saw who it was he dropped them. The Sergeant still had his torch raised and looked as if he meant business. The man skulled his beer and they all left the hotel.

Cliff, the publican poured a beer and passed it over the bar to the Sergeant. "Thanks for that Chilly, They'd been a little loud and full of shit up until then and I was keeping an eye on them but you saved me the agro."

Chilvers drank the beer in one go and placed the glass back on the bar. "No worries Mate, I'll see ya next Sat'dy night, if you have any problems during the week you just have to give me a bell."

"Sure thing Chilly, see ya."

I walked over to the bar. "That was pretty impressive, does everyone go so quietly?"

"Yeah, Chilly's a good cop and the people know it. He doesn't take any bullshit and knows how to handle himself when he needs to, but he hasn't needed to for a long time. When he tells someone to cool it they do."

"How long did it take to earn that respect?"

"It took a while. When he first got here he was pretty gung ho and by the book. He didn't win too many friends let me tell you. But one of the old boys took him to one side and told him a thing or two about handling us country folk. City ways just don't work out here. Once he cottoned to that bit of advice things got better for him. He did a deal, if any of the young bucks started acting tough he took him aside and admonished him in a subtle way. If it happened again he had a quiet word with the kid's father and let him sort it out behind the wood shed. They learned quickly enough. Nothing happens around here that he doesn't know about. Even some of the parents ask him to 'admonish' their kids when they get out of control."

"Is there much crime around here?"

"Not as you'd notice. Whenever there's a break-in he usually knows who did it and goes and has words. If the guy has the goods still it's returned and nothing more is said about it. If the tea leaf (thief) does it again he gets locked up and everyone hears about it. They seldom re-offend, especially not after the towns folk all go to the lock-up and sit outside the cell and talk about him and what they'll do to him the next time."

"And that works?" I was astonished by this revelation of country justice.

"The last time something was taken was three years ago. If he doesn't watch out he'll be doing himself out of a job."

"What about violence, have there been any instances of husbands beating their wives or of lover's spats that have got out of hand?"

"Hasn't been any of that for years, you see the women, when Chilly won their trust and they felt that he'd do something about it, would tell him if the old man had given them the rounds of the kitchen and Chilly would pay them a visit at their place of work. Word soon got around that if the husband got a visit at work it was because he'd been beating his wife. The husbands couldn't stand the embarrassment so the practice stopped."

"What was to prevent a woman seeking revenge for some perceived hurt by falsely accusing her husband of beating her?"

"That was only tried once. The woman in question made a slip up when Chilly was getting details that aroused his suspicions so he investigated further. She had told all her friends what a bastard her husband was for beating her, which wasn't true, he just wouldn't let her buy an expensive dress that she had her eye on because they couldn't afford it. The woman was 'asked' to publicly apologise to her husband, she never did it again and neither did anyone else."

"So, Sergeant Chilvers seems to make use of the people to keep each other under control?"

"Can you think of a better way? If you don't mind me asking, what's your interest in all of this?"

"I'm investigating the operations of the country policemen for my PhD thesis." This was partly true, I was doing a PhD and that was my topic, but it was also my job and the thesis will probably end up the basis of a model for country police operations.

I said goodnight and went to my room. I had a lot of thinking to do. Just about everything that Chilvers did was against police regulations, but there was no denying that his methods seemed to work and his standing in the community was the best that I'd come across. This could require a radical rethink of how things were done in the country.

Word got around about my investigation and that brought about the first negative reaction. It was in the form of a young, if you can call the mid-twenties young, attractive blonde woman. She approached me as I sat in the dining room eating breakfast.

"Excuse me, are you the man investigating Sergeant Chilvers?"

"Yes. Can I help you?"

"Is there somewhere private where we can talk?"

"I'm in room 2 upstairs, if you give me half an hour to finish here I'll be happy to talk to you." I wasn't happy with this situation, I had a feeling that it could prove tricky, but I needed to listen to what she had to say.

I answered her knock and she entered. My feeling of unease increased when I had a closer look at her, there was something about her that I didn't trust. "What do you want to talk to me about?"

"It's about Chilly and me."

"What about Chilly and you?"

"He and I are having an affair."

"So, he's not a married man, I have to assume that the problem is that you're married, is this correct?"

'Yes. I'm Suzie Chambers. It's not so much that we're having the affair that's the problem, it's how it started in the first place that's the problem. Once it began I didn't want it to stop."

"Does he want it to stop?"

"He says he does but he keeps coming back."

"How did it get started?"

"Well, my husband Jim, he's a hard worker and he usually calls into the pub on Friday after work for a drink with his workmates and friends, there's a whole bunch of them every Friday night."

"Are there any women involved?"

"Good God no! Women are not allowed there, it's a time for the blokes only."

"So what happened?"

"One Friday night Jim got really drunk, more than usual, and Chilly stopped him just as he was getting into his car to drive home, and took him to the lock-up to sober up for the night."

"That seems fair."

"Then he came to our house to tell me that Jim was in the lock-up and would be charged with being drunk and disorderly. That was when he suggested that if I didn't want him charged we could come to an arrangement. You know. . . . ." She left it to my imagination as to what was being suggested.

"So in return for you having sex with him he would drop the charges against your husband?"

"Yes. And I'm not the only woman that he has done this with."

"And I gather you agreed to this?"

"What choice did I have? We couldn't afford to pay any fines and if we couldn't he'd go to gaol and then where would I be?"

"So you and the Sergeant had sex?"

"Yes."

"Was this the only time or were there more?"

"Oh no, there were more. It became a regular thing, at least once a month he'd lock Jim up for the night and then come to me for sex."

"Did you think to report him?"

"I did at first but then, then I began to look forward to his visits. He is a good lover."

"Do you have any children?"

"No. We can't afford to have children."

"For me to take this matter further I'll need a statement from you describing what happened, the dates of all of these visits, and what you did. I need as much detail as possible, do you think you can do that?"

"Yes."

"Okay, what I want you to do is to go home and write down everything that you can remember and bring it back to me tomorrow. We'll go through it and from it we can draft a stat dec (Statutory Declaration) that I can use as a basis for my enquiries."

She poked her head out of the door to see if the coast was clear before disappearing down the corridor leaving me wondering what the hell was happening. Up until now it was looking very positive for the Sergeant but if what she had just told me had any truth to it, it could mean the end of his career. He had used his position as a law enforcement officer for his own gains and that cannot be tolerated.

I spent the rest of the day going over my notes but something bothered me. Chilvers had shown himself to be a tolerant man who administered justice in a firm but fair manner, he tolerated minor misdemeanours and indiscretions and cracked down hard on matters that affected a third party, yet, if this woman was to be believed, he stepped outside the parameters he set for others for his own benefit. I couldn't understand this, and the statement that I read the next day did nothing to alleviate my concerns.

***

'The following statement is a true and accurate record of the events that transpired between me and Sergeant Frank Chilvers.

On a Saturday night (I made a note to get the exact date) in May of last year I answered my door and Sergeant Chilvers was there. He asked to come in and I thought that something bad had happened to my husband Jim.

Sergeant Chilvers told me that Jim had been arrested for being drunk and disorderly, he had urinated in the street outside the pub, and was in the lock-up. He informed me that if he pressed charges Jim would be fined a large amount of money or could go to gaol. This was a bad situation because we couldn't afford a fine and if we couldn't pay Jim would go to gaol anyway. I had no other income.

Sergeant Chilvers told me that I could arrange to pay the fine off or, if he were to not proceed with the charges he would expect some form of payment. I asked him what he meant and he said that he saw the way I looked at him when we met in the street and that if I was to have sex with him he would let Jim go in the morning when he sobered up.

I didn't want to do this but he put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me close to him and kissed me. I struggled to get away from him but he was stronger than me. He kissed me again and because I was wearing only my nightdress he couldn't take his eyes off me. He could see my nipples through the material and it was turning him on. He put his hand on my breast and I tried to pull it away but he wouldn't let me. After a while he lifted the hem of my nightdress and began to touch me down there and all the while he kept telling me that I knew that I wanted it and he was going to give it to me.

In the end I realised that there was no stopping him so I let him do it.

The next morning Jim came home and told me that Chilly had kept him locked up all night and that he didn't think that he was all that drunk. He said that Chilly told him that he wouldn't lay charges this time but that if it happened again he would. I told him that it had better not happen again.

A month later it happened again and Chilly came round the same as before and told me that he'd have to fine Jim this time, unless. . . .I got his meaning and we did it again, only this time he got me to kneel in front of him and to suck his cock until he came into my mouth. We had sex several times that night and Jim was released the next morning and he didn't have to pay the fine.

This went on once, sometimes twice a month, Jim would get drunk and Chilly would lock him up for the night and then come around to see me and we'd have sex. By this time I was getting to like having sex with Chilly, let's face it, Jim was no great shakes in bed at the best of times, he was hopeless when he was drunk so it was no great loss for me that he was locked up. At least he couldn't come home and catch me and Chilly at it.

***

The accusation was there, she was accusing Sergeant Chilvers of abusing his position as a police officer to obtain sexual favours from her. While she was a reluctant participant in the first few episodes she came to like it, but this doesn't make the act any less reprehensible and I would have to investigate this further. I rang Sergeant Chilvers and identified myself and the reason that I wanted to arrange a time when I could discuss the issues with him. I also asked for a copy of the station records over the past ten years to be sent to my hotel so that I could look through them before the meeting. A time was set for two the following afternoon.

I had my notes in front of me as we sat at a table in the police station. He had made me a cup of coffee that was almost drinkable but not the worst police station coffee that I had ever tasted.

"Sergeant Chilvers, I am here to conduct a Performance Review. As you are aware, every two years each serving officer has to undergo a review to ascertain his suitability for promotion in the future. Now I have several questions to ask you and you will answer them truthfully. At the end of this I will summarise my findings and concerns and you will be given the opportunity to address any of my concerns. Is this understood?"

'Yes." He seemed quietly confident.

"Now you have been here for fourteen years, is this correct?"

"Yes."

"And you have never in that time thought of moving on to a higher ranked posting?"

"When I first got here I would have busted my gut to move on and up, but I got to like the place and the people here." (I bet you did.)

"If I were to ask if you wanted a transfer now, would you accept one?"

"No. I am happy with my job and with my life here."

"If I were to offer you a transfer at a higher rank and increased salary, would you accept it?"

"No. The way that I see it, any promotion would mean that I would have to move back to the city, and I know that the police department would help with the removal expenses, unless it came with departmental housing like I have here, I wouldn't be able to afford the move. That along with the fact that I like it here means that I would decline the offer."